In another month, the same cruel end awaits millions of pheasants. Every year, around 60 million pheasants and partridges are purpose-bred – often on factory farms – just to be used as targets for shooters.
Millions of birds will have already been released into the countryside, despite the risks they pose of transmitting bird flu to wild birds. Animal Aid, as well as the RSPB and others, have asked the government to ban the release of pheasants and partridges into the countryside – but our pleas have fallen on deaf ears, even though bird flu has been found in game birds.
Many partridges and pheasants used for breeding purposes are imprisoned in terrible cages, which are so stressful to the birds that they attack one another in their desperation. To prevent damage to their ‘property’, gamekeepers fix ‘bits’ over the birds’ beaks to lessen the amount of physical damage they can do to one another. But it does nothing to deal with the original stress.
